A time capsule of the greatest financial mania in the history of mankind, told in real-time by regular folks and patriots. May future generations better understand the madness of crowds, and how power and money corrupt.

August 27, 2008

Will the GOP postpone their convention? Or will they read My Pet Goat, and let them eat cake?

(and just a note - stop building homes in flood zones America. It's only gonna get worse..)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary, a nervous New Orleans watched Wednesday as another storm threatened to test everything the city has rebuilt, and officials made plans to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos.

Forecasters warned that Gustav could grow into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane in the next several days and hit somewhere along a swath of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Texas — with New Orleans smack in the middle.

After this coming cold winter, we will be talking about the next ice age - sunspot activity is at a 400 year low - the last time this happened the Thames froze over and the canals of Amsterdam were for ice skating. . .this does not mean there is no global warming (the cold might actually be modified a bit). . .NOW KEITH and other. . .WHY do we have to use global warming as an excuse to decrease pollution???. . .isn't it enough to want clean air and water for the next generation??

The problem with Al Gore scare tactics is that if we have 5 years of below normal weather, he and global warming will be discredited, and China, et al will feel free to dump again. . .

All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.

BARACK OBAMA, speech, Apr. 3, 2006

We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge.

If there is a God, she will plow that Hurricane right in to New Orleans smack dab in the middle of the Republican National Convention and remind everyone of what 4 more years of Bush/McCain will do to this country!

Last time I checked, Pelosi was investing her retirement money into natural gas drilling. Geez, I wonder if she's going to push that to make her investment grow...oops, she already did:

WSJ -- Pelosi and her husband drew attention recently for their investment in T. Boone Pickens’s Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which markets compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas as a fuel for motor vehicles. Some leading Democrats, including Pelosi, have been eying legislation to encourage such uses of natural gas

Pelosi’s investment in Clean Energy – between $50,000 and $100,000 – is a tiny fraction of the speaker’s assets, as she pointed out on Sunday. “That’s not the point,” she added. “I’m investing in something I believe in.”

“I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels,” she said at one point. Natural gas “is cheap, abundant and clean compared to fossil fuels,” she said at another.

I figured it was a joke about Bush culties. A fact is that religion breeds ignorance thanks to its leaders. The more ignorant the flock, the more gullible they are, especially if they are gullible enough to believe a 2,000 year old sci-fi novel is "god's word". And it's poorly written at that.

If Gustav revs up good, then attacks New Orleans and re-floods it, the Dems will be a shoe-in. It's a no-brainer that Bush will re-do the Katrina Bush debacle. Will Gustav be a "Gustav Bush"???

We'll sure find out! The gulf is bathtub-warm like last time so Gustav stands to rev up real good.

Got back from Alaska two weeks ago. Pilots in Juneau area told me that the glaciers are growing this year. No one or media has acknowleged that. I don't buy a 40 year trend, maybe 500 years in terms of earth evolution, but no one can validate that either. All sheer conjecture and media eye candy.

With respect to New Orleans I wish the people godspeed. All levels of govt have deceieved the constituents for the last 40 years. There is no backstop. The latest failure is the flooding due to Fay in Central Florida. The county govt pumps water to appear like they are doing something, but the pumps will take 5 years to pump the water out of the flooded lakes. All nonsense. The American people are on their own and don't know it. Laura Bush should cry out "let them it cake"

The theory of global warming has as much credibility as the theory of evolution -- in other words, get used to it because that is the way it is.

That the Fox News/ Military Industrial Complex has been able to question either should be proof that the US public is too stupid to survive.

Folks -- this is not about values.

That said, climate is a difficult nut to crack, being influenced by myriad factors including decadal ocean circulation fluctuations, so-called greenhouse gasses, very long period changes in Earth's orbit, and pollution (think Denver's brown cloud). Greenhouse gasses warm the planet, but other anthropogenic (human-caused) factors appear to cause cooling.

My vote is that the evidence (glaciers melting, permafrost thawing, measured warming, etc.) is clear and that we are in for a spell of warm weather for the next few centuries. If you disagree, move to the beach or New Orleans -- if you are correct you will make a killing. If not, well... natural selection still works.

For what it is worth, my wife believes that global warming is total BS. I do not agree.

Anon 12:23 AM said: "Why have the environuts changed the name from 'Global Warming' to 'Climate Change'?"

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It's called "climate change" now because it's likely that Earth will not universally warm. While the world's average temperature will warm significantly, there may be parts of the world that will maintain roughly the same temperature; some may even cool. However, in most parts of the world there will be significant changes in climate, even if the local average temperature doesn't increase: increased or decreased precipitation, more frequent and/or more intense hurricanes/typhoons, more extreme heat waves and cold spells, etc.

The rationale is to try to head off claims in 2050 along the lines of "city X is 2 degrees colder than it was 50 years ago, therefore global warming is false" while the world's average temperature has increased by 2 degrees. Such claims regarding isolated events contradicting a global trend are red herrings.

I just boughtt a million shares of wamu today.Stock will be at 20 soon.It is a great bank with a clean balance sheet.So they made some bad loans, big deal, who didn't.They will make these losses up in a year or two with all the fees they charge peons like you.

I wish is was in new oleans getting laid and waiting for this wussy hurricane.Hopefully it will turn for mexico so they can give everyone a rebate check.

Global warming is a hoax people, get over it.Go fill your tank and get a hot dog at sams club.

FEB 2008, Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

In 1973-77 when I was young the covers of newsweek and time BOTH said we were in a coming ICE AGE. AGES last something more than 100 years. Now we are in an AGE of warming. Who is kidding who.

New Orleans is, however, the result of poor government. Specifically, DEMOCRAT. Holland for God's sake offered its knowledge and technology to prevent the disaster and were turned down. Fireworks for the masses were apparently more important.

Global warming is not the issue. Neither is global cooling. Planet Earth warms and cools over billions/millions/100's of thousands of years....let alone the last 100 years. The earths cycles are beyond HUMAN control.

Go back and scan time magazine in the early 1970's. HUMAN made global COOLING was the scare.

Bottom line...socialists will always attempt to extort $$$$ from the capitalist producers.

I'd say that gore is the horses rear since he likes spewing out stuff all the time.

his mansion, even with 33 solar panels, still uses over 200 times the average energy of a normal home!

"keith: Future generations will be amazed. How could such stupid people exist in 2008."

the answer is easy, genetics!

I believe in climate change but not global warming and yes I believe its manmade and no, I don't believe its fixable.

more specifically, when I was in high school, I read "international wildlife" and that magazine talked about how whole herds of animals died since their migration routes were blocked by big cities. thus the animals would overheat and die since they couldn't climb up into the mountains.

thank goodness we have NASA so we can go find life on other planets after most of it stops thriving here!

I think you're playing it fast and loose... the fact is: yes, genetic mutation happens but that fact doesn't disprove the creation myth.

your other facts-- like "the earth is flat," show that man's perception is terrible; thus, there might be other possibilities besides creationism via god or creationism via evolution.

for example, I was shocked to learn that the chromatic scale on my piano sounds linear even though the pitch frequecies compound at a rate of about 6%.

personally, I'm a creationist since modern science is embracing genetic engineering methods; thus, future generates will be designed instead of evolved; hence, the line you draw is grayer than you think.

why do people think those people all have means to just gas up the hummer and get on the freeway and go to god knows where with an unlimited visa card. these are desperately poor people who have no cars, no money, they are not suave savvy people who run around with cell phones in business suits and jump into a two seater sports car with a beautiful blond (the republican dream)next to them. They are old tired poor black people who have spent a whole life in New Orleans, they probably live way below poverty and there is probably more than their fair share of welfare (i blame repubs for that too) so what do you mean get up and go, how when where. You saw those people in front of that convention center did they look like they had the means that I suggested before. All the ones that died were probably considered collateral damage. Let that shit happen in Beverly Hills and I bet you wouldn't have anything like that (they have the means). Get Real, they aren't going anywhere because they don't have another exotic country to go to like you do.

1. Global warming is bullshit. What we're seeing is normal climate variation, and there is NOTHING humans can do to change the conditions.

2. Morons who live below sea level and expect any government to protect them deserve what they get.

3. Do you REALLY think it matters which sh*t for brains politicians are in power?! BOTH parties grow their pet government programs to buy the votes of their idiot followers. We're F*CKED no matter what. Have you ever watched Nancy Pelosi? She is so stupid it's stunning. "Really? Natural gas is a petroleum product? Wow - that's amazing!"

4. See ya around, pal. No more page views here for me. You've lost it.

Global warming skeptics, please explain the mechanism whereby humans can inject more CO2 into the atmosphere than at any time in the past 800,000 years, including periods when the ice caps completely melted, without inducing an increase in temperature. Note - we're talking roughly 30% greater than the maxima and climbing. What do you suggest will occur? Finally, if you can correct a financial chart for inflation, why can't you allow for cooling effects such as global dimming - what they imply is that the world is being kept *artificially* cooler than it ought to be. I want to believe that you are intelligent enough to understand. No one is getting a PhD in Physics as a clever way to steal money, for crying out loud. It's awful to contemplate, but we must face reality ASAP.

Keith,I continue to read your blog because you were spot on about the housing ponzi scheme which is presently destroying the global economy. Why are f2^*cking republicans so ignorant about science. You sure have a bunch of rightwing nutjobs posting on this site. We are all screwed because rethugs have not done the necessary reading to understand the carbon cycle and the relationship between atmoshere and ocean currents. Global warming should really be called extreme weather and long term climate change that will make life miserable for all survivors in the not so distant future.dumbfucks...

Global warming is Liberal Plot to deny my divine right to prosperity! That fat Gore is just doing it to get rich, and destroy the Non negotiable American way of life--While were at it, peak oil is a liberal plot also to destroy capitalism and install communism (that is why Hillary killed Vince Foster, and used one of the Queens Black Helicopter's to hid the gun in Lenin's tomb).Back to peak oil-- The entire core of earth is one big nugget of oil, and is replenished from Uranus's Moon, Oily, through a worm hole.Gore knows this, but has the media controlled.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!! Its a great time to buy in N.O.! Its a boom town! You can pick up great deals and make a ton of cash! Dont run BUY!!!! BUY BUY!!!! Global warming is great for the area! All N.O. will have beach front property and prices to the moon! You wont need to dig a pool it will be right there for you and your family to enjoy. Please dont leave N.O. buy more property and make money now!!!!

Gustav is particularly worrisome because there are few surrounding wind currents capable of shearing off the top of the storm and diminishing its power, the hurricane center said. "Combined with the deep warm waters, rapid intensification could occur in a couple of days."

WASHINGTON — More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at its second lowest level in about 30 years.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that sea ice in the Arctic now covers about 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1979 was 1.65 million square miles set last September.

The year 2007 tied for second warmest in the period of instrumental data, behind the record warmth of 2005, in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) analysis. 2007 tied 1998, which had leapt a remarkable 0.2°C above the prior record with the help of the "El Niño of the century". The unusual warmth in 2007 is noteworthy because it occurs at a time when solar irradiance is at a minimum and the equatorial Pacific Ocean is in the cool phase of its natural El Niño-La Niña cycle.

Part of climate change is man made, there's no denying it. You add greenhouse gases (like CO2, Methane, etc.) to a system (Earth's atmosphere) and you keep everything else constant then the temperature will rise.Of course not everything else is constant. You have varying sun activity, changes in the earth's orbit, axiial tilt, change in ocean currents, tectonnics, vulcanos and a bunch of other events that influence the climate. A good analogy would be your 401K account. You add $1000 every month but the value of your portfolio will not increase by $1000 every month. In fact, over the past 12 month it probably contracted due to market fluctuations beyond your control. The long term trend however is up as long as you keep adding money to it.But I suppose that's a bit too complicated for most folks visiting this blog. People who can't even figure out that it is a bad idea to build a city below sea level or in the desert can't be expected to reason their way out of a paper bag. Go have a hot dog at Sam's Club, buy some American flags (made in China), filler'up and watch some NASCAR. Don't forget to vote for McCain 'cos he'll kick some Commie ass!

Even before a potential strike, Gustav may give Americans a jolt as they get ready for Labor Day weekend.

"There's a strong chance that by Friday we could see some fairly significant pump price increases," Ritterbusch said. "Crude can be replaced and brought in via tanker, but bringing a damaged refinery back up again can take a long time, as we saw with Katrina and Rita."

Business weather research firm Planalytics said Wednesday up to 80 percent of the Gulf's oil and gas production could be shutdown as a precaution if Gustav enters the region as a major storm.

Keith, face the facts: You blog for a huge number of absolute idiots... Some people just never seem to learn. I hope McCain wins the presidency. Then Europeans will finally understand that we have to build our future against and not with the Americains. If Obama wins, people over here will nourish illusions for some years still, until they realise that the US are toast and no relevant, credible and worthwhile partner anymore. The world is better of without. Americans seem to live on another planet than the rest of humanity. Heck, if they stay on track, humanity will actually have to look for another planet. Keep up your good work, Keith, even though it must be frustrating. But some are actually with you and appreciate your work and thoughts.

"Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, that for the years 1998-2005 global average temperature did not increase (there was actually a slight decrease, though not at a rate that differs significantly from zero).

I'm not sure who I feel more sorry for, the stupid and ignorant, or the people of the world made to suffer because of their ignorance and fear of science

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070315101129.htm

Researchers Question Validity Of A 'Global Temperature'

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2007) — Discussions on global warming often refer to 'global temperature.' Yet the concept is thermodynamically as well as mathematically an impossibility, says Bjarne Andresen, a professor at The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, who has analyzed this topic in collaboration with professors Christopher Essex from University of Western Ontario and Ross McKitrick from University of Guelph, Canada.

"They are old tired poor black people who have spent a whole life in New Orleans, they probably live way below poverty and there is probably more than their fair share of welfare (i blame repubs for that too) so what do you mean get up and go, how when where."

Absolutely nobody cares. If you are so fucking stupid to rebuild that below-sea-level shithouse with my tax dollars, you deserve to drown and I hope you do, especially the young and the old.

No Mercy, No help, No taxpayer assistance, No nothing. Fuck that place. The only thing that belongs there is the National Headquarters for FEMA. Put in the 9th Ward next to the international canal.

Get a boat and learn to swim. Maybe a handgun or two and plenty of ammo which are available on most street corners from the homies and slingers in the quarter.

Yours truly is a whopping 44 years of age. Time - wise in geological terms, nothing.

I can recall as a teenager some other experts talking about "global cooling" and the fear that the earth was entering another ice age - sounds silly now right? Well then again, there were some other experts at the time who were making predictions that disco would replace rock in the hearts and minds of American music lovers. Those of us in rural MS listening to Skynyrd and ZZ and Led Zep were not impressed.

My point is that these predictions do not hold much water because in my opinion they require a knowledge base that has not yet been attained by human beings. I will say this as a former New Orleans resident - years ago (1960's) when Hurricane Camille came ashore, most people used reasonable measures to protect themselves and evacuated when it was necessary. Some died - it was a CAT 5 storm with 190 m.p.h. winds. But, many people returned their property to it's original pre-storm condition not long after the storm was passed. Oh, and FEMA did not formally exist then.

Don't you worry New Orleans residents because the Hollywood celebs who rent Caribbean islands for $50k per night to bang models, or buy $10k handbags, are going there to save you.

Hollywood celebs are so in touch with the regular people. That's why they tipped me $1 when I used to serve them all night at Beverly Hills restaurants, after ordering $300 wine and arriving in Bentleys. But I understand, there wasn't any cameras around to make them look good, like there's in New Orleans.

Hollywood celebs are the worst people on earth. Don't buy anything those scumbags sell or endorse. Power to the people, don't be a serf for Hollywood celebs. Boycott those spoiled bastards.

Don't forget that the reason conservatives don't want to believe in global warming is because the solution involves curtailing some aspects of capitalism. There's nothing harder to reason with than a conservative who smells money. I mean, we're talking about a group of people who would eat their MOTHERS if they thought they'd shit money. Money is all that matters to them. It's the core and crux of their miserable, shallow lives.

For as much as the brainstem conservatives profess to love Amuhricuh, there's not one that wouldn't sell out their citizenship for the right amount of money. And I'll bet it wouldn't take much.

I have real skin in the game in NO. Hope all is well. We've survived many a hurricane...it was the levee breaks that was devastating.Anyone who wishes ill will upon that city and it's people....well, they are beyond reproach.

"...they are not suave savvy people who run around with cell phones in business suits...they probably live way below poverty and there is probably more than their fair share of welfare..."

Actually, in 2002 66% of people in New Orleans had cell phones.

23% of familes, in 1999, were below the poverty level. That pretty much supports your position. However, I took the time to look up the data instead of throwing out "probably".

People like you make me sick. You spend your days talking about what "probably" is, when challenged you say it "should be" that way, and when you finally get the real facts you shut up. Why must everyone listen to you along the way from ignorance to shutting up?

a scientific theory must make regular reliable predictions in order to advance beyond that designation. The Earth is warming. Humans pump a lot of C02 into the air. But the C02 is not created from nowhere, but from already existing elements. And its percentage of atmosphere (or even of green house gasses)is small.

To the guys putting stock in that list of “scientists” who signed the petition, I hate to burst your bubble.

Without even mentioning the vast number of duplicate names (go check it out for yourself, pick a state), 90% of the “scientists” on there are not even in climatology or any related field. Most of them are in completely unrelated subjects, and do not have experience or recent education in the subject of climate change/global warming. Anybody can be a skeptic, but that doesn't mean they are credible.

I don't go to a Mathemetician to try my case in court. I go to an Attorney.I don’t go to an Economist to remove my tumor. I go to a Surgeon.I don’t go to an Anthropologist to manage my stock portfolio. I go to a licensed Financial Advisor.And I don’t go to a Mechanical Engineer who designs air conditioning systems for my house, to educate me about climate change.

There may be some climatologists or related scientists who have signed this bogus petition, but who would know because the list has been so fluffed up with air, to make it look bigger than it is.

If these guys were truly credible, they wouldn’t take just any old person who has a degree. It makes the whole thing look shady.

Not to mention it prominently includes people like Ian Clark, Lindzen, Robinson, Seitz, and Tim Patterson. Anyone who has spent hours and hours reading about this very complicated topic has already come across tons of material that discredits these quacks. Oh yeah, and the "Oregon Institue" that created the petition is a non-profit run by 6 people. SIX. So don't get all excited thinking the word Institute gives it any weight or credibility. It's only reason for existence was to create this bogus petition. It has no other function.